Electoral reforms in India

For a democratic Nation, the most essential thing required is Elections. Electoral reforms are the basic requirements of the democracy. The first and foremost Election commissioner of India is , Su Kumar Sen. He has mentioned in his words, “ It is not an easy task to process the elections every time, it has been influenced by the geographical, political and social circumstances, and it should need constant improvements, so we require a electoral reforms, which are mandatory for a Democratic Nation”. The Election commission has been formed during 25th January, 1950. It is now, known as National Voter’s day, which many of them may not aware.
If we talk about the Election commission of India, we can’t forget a person named, T.N. Seshan. Yes, he was the one who made a remarkable stone in the regularities in the Electoral reforms. He was appointed as the Chief Election commissioner during 1991, as because those periods, elections were creating lot of deaths and blood flows. So, Government thought a strict person would be needed.

The actions taken by T.N.Seshan are :-
1.The first and the foremost action he did is , he laid a strict code of conduct for the candidates
2.And the next major role was he reduced the number of killed persons.
3.He controlled the expenditure, by 336 Auditors, which was extra ordinary.
4.He introduced the EVM
5.He made the voters, a strict Voter’s ID.
6.Over all, he had a great support from the public.
EVM – Electronic Voting machine, which made a significant impact in reducing malpractices and fraudulent voting in Elections. The website of the EVM has been launched during 1998. The Election commission , is the guardian for a safer and fair elections. The confusions are avoided. The Election commission, has a secretariat office at New Delhi.
In the year 2014, they have a discussion to introduce the NOTA option, none of the above option. This will make the people select the right and better candidates. This option would create a fear with the political parties. They would be encouraging their candidates.
Elections are the mainstay of the Indian democracy. The Universal Adult Franchise initiated by 61st Amendment, 1988, has made the Voter’s Eligibility age by 18 years of age from 21 years of age. Elections are held for the Lok sabha, Rajya sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies and Legislative councils.
Criminalization indulged in the politics, made the Elections also criminalized. Most of the political leaders, use the criminal elements as like a ladder for their political life. The main drawback of the Nation, is many don’t have the awareness of the amendments of the Electoral reforms. This should be changed. There are lot of malpractices and corrupt practices are happened during Elections, such as bribing, rigging or voters intimidation, impersonation, and providing transport and conveyance of voters to and fro the polling stations.
There were many instances during 2009-10 elections. Politicians are paying for their news coverage and bribing voters were frequent at that time. Money played a dominant role in the elections. And as a result of those, violence increased. In the small towns and cities, it is happening often , and the worrying part is nobody opposing it. Caste and religion also creates violence during elections.
Now, the system is very poor. The Lok Sabha members behave like illiterates. And its our practice that , we would be blaming the current political party for all the current criminal activities. Here plays the importance of the Electoral reforms . Let’s wish for a proper leadership Government, by next Election. It’s all in our own hands. Use your Right to vote and do the right to the Nation.